A newly relaunched Catholic website aims to educate parents, pastors, and teachers about gender ideology, which the website’s founders believe young people are often being exposed to without adults’ awareness.
Person and Identity, an online project of the Catholic Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C., features information about current trends in gender ideology, scientific evidence against those ideologies, and explanations of Church teaching on the topic. Its goal is to promote a Catholic vision of the human person.
Dr. Susan Selner-Wright, a philosophy professor at Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Colorado, told Catholic News Agency that the project aims to provide the most up-to-date information about the current trends in society regarding gender.
The site defines “gender ideology” as “a false system of beliefs about the human person, premised on the idea that ‘human identity becomes the choice of the individual.’”
“[Gender ideology] asserts an individual’s ‘right’ to ‘transition’ to a desired identity, using social, medical or surgical interventions to ‘feminize’ or ‘masculinize’ the body’s appearance,” the site reads.
“The vision that the Church teaches of body-soul unity really is irreconcilable with this idea that someone can be born in the wrong body,” Selner-Wright noted.
Selner-Wright said the site represents an “evolution” of an initiative that began in 2016, when the Catholic Women’s Forum had a meeting with presentations from historians, theologians, doctors, with the theme of gender ideology.
After the meeting, members of the Forum began giving presentations on the topic of gender ideology in their home communities and elsewhere. Eventually, in response to demand, the Forum launched the website, buoyed by a grant from the OSV Institute, so as to reach more people.
It also includes testimonies from doctors who do not support the idea of gender transition, and warnings about “gender therapists”— most of whom, Selner-Wright said, are trained to affirm and recommend transition….
The above comes from a Feb. 16 story on the site of the Catholic News Agency.
This is a good resource. Thank you, CCD, for posting this.
Some people, especially some young people, in our parishes are struggling with gender discordance. Being Catholic, even devout (in the real, not the Joe Biden, sense) does not exempt our families from the influences of the world. Pray for those individuals and families struggling with gender confusion.
And, if you have children (or grandchildren, godchildren or nieces & nephews) in Catholic schools, be vigilant. Not all Catholic schools teach Catholic anthropology and theology. You may want to share this resource with Catholic educators, pastors, DREs, youth ministers, parents, grandparents and others you know.
Pray especially for families that are not struggling with this at all.
Pray for the parents and family that have embraced this wholeheartedly and, in a “Danse Macabre” manner, “celebrate” the mutilation of a child of God.
I am past being shocked at this. I am just incredibly saddened.
Good to see this being done. Something good. At least this one thing. Finally. Time for bishops and priests to step it up and speak on this in their homilies.
On the website, when you click on The Basics, the first line is this:.
The Catholic Church teaches that each human being is most fundamentally a beloved daughter or son of God, created in God’s own image and likeness.
We just read from Cardinal Burke that the Church does not teach that. It does teach that each person is created in God’s image.
“All men are created in the image and likeness of God, but, since the Fall of our First Parents, with the consequent inheritance of original sin, men can only become children of God in Jesus Christ, God the Son, Whom God the Father sent into the world, in order that men could again become His sons and daughters through faith and Baptism. It is only through the Sacrament of Baptism that we become children of God, adopted sons and daughters of God in His only-begotten Son.”
Here is the way I understand it. We are all called to be children of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, but different people teach and believe different things. A devout Muslim does not consider God his father. He rejects that idea. He considers it blasphemous to call God his father. Some people consider themselves sons and daughters of multiples gods and/or goddesses. One cannot be a son and daughter of the Christian God if one rejects the whole idea, and the Christian teachings that go with it. A Buddhist, Muslim, etc. is a fellow human, but he is not my brother in Christ. I believe Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism.
Anonymous is correct. Human beings are not sons of God by nature. They only become adopted sons of God by grace in Baptism. The Word is the eternal Son of God by nature. Through incorporation into Christ and his Church, by grace, human beings become adopted sons of God, as they are members of Christ’s mystical body. Theological precision is important.
Thank you.
Anonymous, fair enough. I have made that point, or a similar point, in the past. Yet, the Church does teach that Jesus, through His Incarnation, does identify with all humanity and, in some way, identifies all of humanity with Himself, which, of course, includes His relationship with His Father, God, the Creator of us all. That is why many, if not most, in the Church teach that Jesus, at the judgment, will deal with us according to how we have treated others, all others. Do you think that when our Lord says that what we’ve done or failed to do for the “least of the brothers” (Matt. 25:40,45) applies only to what we’ve done (or failed to do) for those who have been reborn and adopted into the family of God by baptism and faith? Or, do you think that applies as well to how we treat those who have not yet entered the Church (and may even never do so)? I think it’s the latter. But, I’m open to be corrected by the Church regarding a common understanding of Matthew 25 and on all other matters as well.
More importantly, in light of this issue of transgender ideology, did you find anything else objectionable at the website? (I hope you got beyond that first line.)
If so, please let us know.
If not, I’ll continue to refer to it as a good resource (at least until something better comes along).
I do not know if it is a good resource or not. I do not know if they present the Catholic point of view or not. I have found very little from the Church on that subject.
I found the section where they list Church resources. I do see some issues, such as a confusion about the term sexual identity.
I think it is a good resource for finding Church resources, but there are not many.
Deacon Craig Anderson, the more time I spend on the website the more I am becoming uncomfortable with it.
I would look at absolutely everything on it before you recommended it to someone.
If it was me I would pray a lot over it.
I think you need to follow your bishop’s guidance on how to deal with the teenagers in your parish.
You don’t want somebody to kill themselves or to destroy a family.
Refuting gender ideology is a lot different than “accompanying” a parishioner with gender dysphoria.
It depends on where your parishioners are at spiritually. If they are still at the “Will God put me in hell” phase, you would need to deal with that. Or “Why did God make me like this?” or “Is it a mortal sin?” or “Am I being punished?” is different than if someone is at the spiritual phase of “How can I best serve the Lord?” “This is great suffering. How can I bear it?” “How does this glorify God?”
Thank you. I will review the website in greater detail. I am aware of the issues you raise.
What, specifically, makes you uncomfortable with it?
What at the website prompted you to write, “You don’t want somebody to kill themselves or to destroy a family.” You’re right. Of course, I don’t (nor do I know anyone who does).
If you’re looking for good resources, I encourage you and others to check out Eden Invitation, a Catholic ministry with which I’m quite familiar. They’re at edeninvitation.com
The website conflates gender ideology and transgenderism, which is a common mistake.
They say they are going to teach people terms when they themselves are using terms such as “sexual identity” wrongly.
The website is confusing. It seems to be written in the abstract rather than to help individuals. The website is much more concerned with trying to inoculate people against the ideology (which isn’t wrong) but it is not how you deal with someone with a disorder.
40% or more transgender individuals attempt suicide. I went back and watch some of Bruce Jenner’s interview during his transition. He had lived 65 years with this condition at the time of the interview. There is a sense that he was so burdened by this disorder that he envied men and women who did not have this conflict within themselves. It is a very difficult disorder to have and to treat.
The website recommends calling an adult what they want to be called, but not a child or adolescent. These decisions need to be made by real people with real knowledge of the distress that a person is experiencing, not strangers on a website.
Deacon Craig, I looked at EdenInternational. It is people who are on the LGBT spectrum and/or have gender discordance ministering to those who also do.
I am not on the spectrum and I am cis-gendered so all I can do is listen and learn.
Thank you for the resource.
Thank you, Anonymous. Now I more understand what you’re pointing out. It is geared toward educating parents and teachers about gender ideology. It is not focused on helping individuals as such, as is Eden Invitation. They are different types of organizations.
I wonder what persons ( particularly immature children ) born in the “wrong” body did before our ability to “change” genders at will? Please, don’t tell me how unhappy they probably were and how unjust it was that they couldn’t be mutilated.
Anon, they cross dressed.
When my grandmother and I got on a city bus in the 1940’s, there was a woman ahead dressed in men’s pants and shirt and her hair cut extremely short. Women had longer hair and wore dresses then. I could tell she was a woman by her shape — large hips and bosom. I asked my grandmother, “Is that a man?” She replied nonchalantly, “Oh, that is so and so, she thinks she is a man.”
In some cultures the men and women have little to no body hair, whereas in other cultures the women have more body hair than the men do in hairless cultures. We have all been considered strange for some reason.
My point: a person should dress as far as possible like his own sex in his culture. Women sometimes need to wear ladies’ slacks or jeans because of their jobs or activities, and men wear such things as kilts in their cultures, but a person should not present himself/herself as the opposite sex to deceive. An exception might be if you are innocent, and someone is out to kill you. There are people with genital defects who have the right to corrective surgery, but still should dress according to sex closes to their DNA. No full bodied men or women in opposite sex restrooms.
Furthermore, there are plenty of restrooms in California and most other places that lock and are unisex. We all have used them at times, so there should be no problem for people who are having corrective surgery to find a restroom to use. No need for a person to use an opposite sex bathroom.
Children are a whole different matter. Common sense should be used. We know that ladies sometime have to take smaller sons into ladies’ rooms. Most of us have no problem with that unless the child is looking under or climbing the stalls.
Here is an example of what they did (as written by Linda Roberts:
I first became aware that something was different about my gender identity at an early age when I began to put on my older sister’s dresses and lipstick. Back then, in the 1950s and early 1960s, the term “transgender” did not exist nor did the internet, social media or any other informational source to help me understand the feelings that I was experiencing. Assuming that it was not “acceptable” in society (or only featured in a comical way) I was extremely fearful of being “caught” expressing my feelings and never considered discussing it with anyone. As I aged these intrinsic feelings never disappeared but subconsciously grew stronger. After my sister left home, I dressed in my mother’s clothes. I continued my “secret” life through high school (Catholic) and college, dressing female whenever I had the time and opportunity with clothes that I embarrassingly purchased. I developed a relationship with a girl and we married after college and five years of courtship. Marriage did not cause my desires to dress as a woman to disappear, although my responsibilities to my spouse, children (three) and career limited my opportunities for expression. These innate desires only grew more intense as my children left home and my career had passed its peak. I finally confessed to my ex-spouse in late 2004 and we abruptly separated in 2005 and later divorced as a result. I take no pride in my not being honest with her throughout our courtship and long marriage (over 32 years before I disclosed my true identity) but was always fearful of breaking up our family and other consequences of this disclosure. My “story” is unfortunately all too typical. (Note: My full transition was delayed for over ten years after my separation as I feared it would lead to termination of my employment – I was a senior finance executive – and to give considerable time for my family to understand and accept my gender awareness and identity).
They also have a high incidence of suicide attempts
Temptations are not sins; giving into them is. We all have temptations to do things we know are wrong. According to Hebrews 4:15, even the Lord Jesus was tempted, but did not sin. The person who wrote what you posted seemed to know what he was doing was wrong. I wonder if the man had a good father figure in his life. Suicide, is never the answer. There is always a way out and back onto the right path if one asks God’s help in staying away from occasions of sins and gets the right help. Trying to pretend to be something one is not never helps us or others.